The Benefits of Running Performance Max Campaigns Without Assets

Performance marketing is all about maximizing return on investment by funding in the channels and tactics that yield the best results. But for advertisers with Shopping feeds and campaigns, the migration to Performance Max forced showing ads across Youtube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail, and Maps. Performance Max places a strong focus on assets, with Google recommending high-quality imagery and video content. This focus is not ideal for advertisers heavily dependent on the bottom of the funnel, or for those without robust creative assets.

While it may be controversial, we recommend an asset-less Performance Max Campaign for those advertisers, as it can provide significant benefits to ROAS by focusing on only lower-funnel placements.

What Is a Performance Max Campaign Without Assets?

Typically, creating a Performance Max campaign involves implementing creative assets, such as lifestyle images or videos, to run ads across different channels. But it isn’t a strict requirement. Performance Max campaigns can be launched without any images or videos and instead rely solely on text and feed ads to drive traffic across Google properties. This approach is less visually engaging than campaigns with assets, but it offers several advantages for advertisers.

Benefits of a Performance Max Campaign Without Assets

Cost-effective advertising

A significant benefit of running a Performance Max campaign without assets is its cost-effectiveness, versus using creative assets. Creating high-quality videos or images can be expensive, and the cost of producing them can quickly add up, especially for a small business with a limited budget. By using text ads instead, advertisers can save money on creative production and focus their resources on targeting specific lower-funnel placements where users are more likely to convert.

Better targeting of lower-funnel placements

Another advantage of an asset-less Performance Max campaign is allowing advertisers to focus on targeting specific lower-funnel placements. When an advertiser uses creative assets in a campaign, the ads may be placed closer to the upper funnel where users are less likely to convert. With text ads, advertisers can focus their resources on targeting lower-funnel placements such as shopping campaigns or dynamic search ads, where users are closer to making a purchase.

Machine learning optimization

Performance Max campaigns are designed to use machine learning to optimize ad delivery and drive better results. This means that even without creative assets, advertisers can benefit from machine learning to improve their campaigns' performance. The machine learning algorithms can optimize ad delivery based on user behavior and performance data, leading to better ad placement and higher ROI.

Controversy Around Performance Max Campaigns Without Assets

Google's best practices for creating Performance Max campaigns recommend the use of creative assets to run ads across different properties. This means that a Performance Max campaign without assets may be seen as controversial since it goes against Google's guidelines.

But it's worth noting that creating a Performance Max campaign without assets is not explicitly against Google's policies. Advertisers can still run campaigns without creative assets, as long as they follow Google's policies and guidelines for text ads.

Performance Data

Across our own clients who do run asset-less performance max campaigns, 95% of their traffic comes through Shopping and accounts for 96% of sales and 98% of revenue. 

Running with assets, shopping traffic was reduced to 86%, but this 86% accounts for 95% of the total sales and 92% of the total Performance Max revenue. This indicates wasted spend on Non-Shopping network placements, as they are less likely to result in a sale. Return-focused advertisers would, in these cases, benefit from asset removal.

Conclusion

Creating a Performance Max campaign without assets may be controversial, but it can provide significant benefits to businesses that want to optimize their ad spend and target lower-funnel placements. By using text ads instead of creative assets, advertisers can save money on creative production and focus their resources on targeting specific placements where users are more likely to convert. With machine learning optimization, advertisers can still benefit from Performance Max campaigns' technology, even without creative assets. Overall, it's worth considering a Performance Max campaign without assets as part of your digital marketing strategy to maximize ROI and improve campaign performance.